CHAPTER SESSION: It All Starts With “HELLO”

As mentioned in the Society Pride and Awarness Recruitment Kit, chapters need to continually generate awareness to recruit, invite, and induct eligible candidates while engaging established members in a specific way to ensure that they renew their membership each year. All of these above components will need to be in constant motion for your chapter to create a truly successful and long-lasting membership experience for its members. This can be achieved by understanding the phases of the membership lifecycle.

Phase 1 of the membership lifecycle is the introduction. The purpose of an introduction is to familiarize the community with your chapter’s values and initiatives. When used effectively, the introduction provides potential members with an understanding of the mission of your organization and how your local chaptercan serve them during their nursing career. This outreach ensures that individuals can make informed decisions about joining when the time comes.

Chapter members need to be able to adequately state who the chapter is and what it offers through membership and involvement. In addition to knowing basic-level information about your chapter, members should be able to speak knowledgeably about the value of belonging to it. One easy way to succinctly state this information is to develop a value proposition statement. A value proposition is a short, clear statement of the concrete results a potential member will get from investing in your chapter. A strong value proposition speaks directly to your target audience and creates interest so that your prospects ask questions and want to learn more. Attendees of this session will use the “Developing a Value Proposition” Worksheet to work on the components of a value proposition statement for their personal chapter experience.

This session will also discuss some tips and ideas to help create awareness in the community, and provide attendees an opportunity to share their personal best practices with the rest of the group.